


Santa, Baby

by FeralCreed



Category: The Losers (2010), The Losers (Comic)
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon, and being fluffy, god this is just, i know it's november, shameless Christmas fluff, shut up, there's another hat and this one does not deserve capitalization, this is basically just cougar and jake living their best hallmark christmas movie life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-12
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2021-01-29 16:06:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21412900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeralCreed/pseuds/FeralCreed
Summary: Jensen finds the perfect gift. Cougar is unamused.
Relationships: Carlos "Cougar" Alvarez/Jake Jensen
Comments: 12
Kudos: 52





	Santa, Baby

**Author's Note:**

> Here's translations for a few Spanish phrases used in the fic. 
> 
> Todavía no es navidad – It's not Christmas yet  
¿Qué es, mi esposo? – What is it, my husband?  
No toques el sombrero – Don't touch the hat  
Un regalo para mi esposo – A gift for my husband

“Hey, Cougs! I got you something!”

There's no response. The house is just as quiet as the neighborhood it's in besides the soft ticking of the clock in the kitchen. While the exterior silence can probably be attributed to the fact that there's a thick blanket of snow on the ground, Jensen's willing to assume that none of that snow has made it inside. A bell jingles quietly as their cat, Morado, runs into the hallway. She stops, stares at him for a moment as if she didn't expect him there, then scrambles off again when Jensen says hello. He smiles and takes his scarf off to hang it on a hook by the door. Cougar's hat is still there, so he hasn't gone out himself. Where could he be? 

Jensen wanders through the house, finding no sign of Cougar until he eventually steps into the living room. Cougar's sprawled out on the couch, relaxed and beautiful, and he stops for a second to appreciate the view. He's wearing a light blue sweater a size too big, which Jensen knows was stolen from his side of the closet, and black pajama pants that have slipped low enough to give him just a glimpse of smooth, tanned skin. His ankles are crossed, with one arm across his waist, and the other tucked behind his head. He must have been taking a nap while Jensen was off shopping. Nobody is patient enough to deal with Jensen at an electronics store, not even his legendary lover. Besides, he'd left early enough that Cougar hadn't even been entirely awake yet. Cougar stretches, hips arching off the couch for a moment, and Jensen would have already given in to that lazy smirk that Cougar sends his way if he wasn't a man on a mission. 

“Okay, that's very tempting, and I definitely want to revisit that later, but in the meantime, like I said, I got you something, so come open it! You're gonna love it, I promise. I picked it out especially for you.” 

“Todavía no es navidad,” Cougar points out, his last word marred by a yawn. 

Whoops, Jensen must have woken him up. It's kind of a habit of his, because he's noisy and loud and Cougar's gotten into the habit of sleeping in longer than he does. Hopefully what he has to give him will make up for it. Or will result in Cougar just deciding to go back to sleep so he doesn't have to deal with Jensen's eccentricities. Either one is completely plausible. Jensen can think of the way he'd like this to go, but, well, he and Cougar often have different ideas when it comes to that. He still doesn't know how Cougar has the patience to live with him, though, so he'll take what he can get. And hopefully manage to snap a few pictures of Cougar and his new gift. 

“Yeah, I know it's not Christmas, but I saw it, and I thought of you, and I was thinking you could wear it _for_ Christmas because it's perfect. Seriously. Es perfecto. Es muy perfecto. See? I've been working hard and practicing my Spanish, too. I bet you're really proud of me.” 

Cougar sighs, closing his eyes for a moment as the corner of his mouth turns up in a faint smile. It's that look, equal parts exasperation and fondness, that makes Jensen fall in love with him a little more each time he sees it. Or at least it's one of the things, because sometimes he feels like he's enamored with everything Cougar does. The same Cougar who must realize there's no getting rid of his exuberant partner, because he sits up and runs a hand through his hair to get it out of his face. It's a little longer now than when they were in the military, past his shoulders. Jensen is fairly certain that that has something to do with how much Cougar enjoys it being played with. Whether it's Jensen twirling a lock around his finger while they watch a movie, or Beth bored enough to mess with braiding it while she's waiting for her soccer team's turn at a regional championship, Cougs loves the feeling. 

And Jensen's not able to resist touching it now. He reaches out and tucks a wayward piece into place behind Cougar's ear. Cougar, of course, leans into his touch, his hand coming up to cover Jensen's own and give it a light squeeze. They have all the time in the world to enjoy being with each other, now that they're retired, but that doesn't stop them from taking in these moments when they happen. If anything, it just encourages them. Nothing is better than just existing with each other for a few breaths and being able to forget about the outside world until they want to let it back in. Finally Cougar leans in, lacing their fingers together, and kisses Jensen's cheek. 

“¿Qué es, mi esposo?” he murmurs. 

Jensen can feel a giddy smile spread across his face. It's their first Christmas together since getting married, and Cougar has been dropping those two little words into all their conversations about holiday plans, ever since they were first asked what they were dressing up as for Halloween. _Mi esposo. My husband._ He has to admit, it drives him kind of wild to hear those words coming from Cougar like that. Both of them always knew that they'd be spending the rest of their lives together, but Jensen had always thought the end would come violently in a distant country. He'd never expected them married in a little New Hampshire town. He'd never expected the Maine Coon that only slept in their bed or the neighbors that knew them by name or the chance to watch Beth become a high school soccer star or him and Cougar being asked to be Pooch's kid's godparents. 

God, he loves his life. Every single piece of it. He'd never thought that much about the future, while he was enlisted. He was usually distracted with people trying to shoot at him. Or trying to figure out how the hell Cougar had cheated in their latest game of cards. But if he had, he thinks it would have looked a lot like this. After killing Max, getting their revenge, neither of them had had the heart to stay in the military any longer. They'd been ready to sit back and let things move on without them as they focused on building a life together and enjoying the time spent with their families. Cougar's had mostly been in California, but they still kept in touch with them through email and occasional flights out. He'll have to send them all pictures of what's about to happen, if he can get them. 

“You can't find out what's in the box until you open it,” he says in a sing-songy voice, holding it out and wiggling it from side to side. Once Cougar takes it, Jensen sits next to him on the couch, waiting to see what kind of reaction his gift will get. It's a plain black cardboard box, with no clues as to its contents, and there's about ten or fifteen layers of tissue paper inside just because Jensen thought it would be funny. Morado will be delighted by his choice in packaging, at least. Every time they get something in a box, she goes wild. It's half the reason he's looking forward to Christmas so much. It will be heaven for her and hopefully keep her distracted from whatever afternoon celebrations Cougar and Jensen are having. She always gets mad at them when she's locked out of the bedroom but Cougar refuses to have sex when she's in the room. There's a joke in there about not wanting the kid to watch, something about cougars and kittens, that Jensen hasn't quite figured out yet. He's working on it. 

Cougar fishes out the layers of paper and sighs when he sees what's inside the box. It's a cowboy hat, and truthfully, if Jensen had gone with one of the other hats on display, he could probably be getting a very good kiss right now. But of course he'd gone right for the more interesting option. The hat's exterior, instead of being any reasonable color, is covered in bright red velvet, with a wide black band around the bottom sporting a shiny plastic gold buckle. The brim is covered in long, fluffy strands of white fake fur. Someone, somewhere, thought it would be a good idea to make a cowboy hat that looked like a Santa hat. And Jensen had immediately needed to get one for his husband. 

“But wait, there's more!” Jensen says. Cougar gives him a look that would scare the shit out of him if he didn't know the man loves him too much to actually kill him. Jensen reaches into the box and pokes at the back of the hat's brim until he finds the right spot. He presses a small button hidden in the fur for a few seconds until... White lights hidden in the fur start flashing on and off. 

“_Why_,” Cougar says, appearing to be struggling with his patience, “would you let something like this exist?” 

“Because you'll look beautiful,” Jensen answers, and puts it on Cougar's head before Cougar can stop him. 

Cougar, for his part, sits very still for a moment, not unlike Morado when he puts anything on her head. Jensen can tell he's thinking. Maybe he'll decide that he likes it after all. It looks a little bit ridiculous, sure, but it's nothing that a smile or two won't fix. Who could look normal when they have a festive hat and a resting bitch face? Which isn't to say that Cougar doesn't look hot, because he manages to look hot in everything, no matter what, and it's completely unfair. But he could try to get in the holiday spirit a little more. 

“You're sleeping on the couch,” Cougar decides, and Jensen immediately whines in protest. 

“I've done nothing wrong!” 

Cougar simply raises an eyebrow and points to the hat. He's still wearing it, though, so Jensen thinks he might still have a chance of getting out of trouble. He isn't actually worried. Cougar's never kicked him out of their bed before, and Jensen can't think of anything that would make him fulfill his threat. The closest thing he can think of is the time Cougar chose to sleep on the couch himself because Jensen was sick and he didn't want to catch the flu. But Jensen's always been the dramatic one, and this is no exception. 

“I think it would clash less with what you're wearing if you took your sweater off,” he suggested helpfully, and grinned when Cougar simply stared at him. That flat look has intimidated a thousand different people, but Jensen hasn't been afraid of it in a long time. Once you learn to understand his language of eyebrows and frowns and hat bumps – and the occasional glorious smile – it isn't hard to know what he's thinking. Cougar isn't very impressed with his gift, Jensen knows that, but he isn't angry about it. In fact, if Jensen had to guess, he thinks it's kind of funny. Still, Jensen can play along, so he sighs and reaches out to take the Santa hat off him, playing his dejected attitude to perfection, if he does say so himself. 

“No toques el sombrero,” Cougar reminds him, leaning back out of reach. 

“I thought that only went for hats you liked,” Jensen replies. 

Cougar huffs and shifts so that he's sitting sideways with his knees in Jensen's lap. Jensen immediately settles his hand on top of Cougar's thigh, his thumb rubbing in little circles as he offers his husband a little smile. Sure, they bicker sometimes, but he can count the number of times it's turned into an actual fight on one hand. They're surprisingly good at leaving a situation before it gets that heated between them. Besides, half the reason he got the hat in the first place was because he was pretty sure Cougar would wear it. The other half was because he'd laughed so hard when he saw it that he apparently scared someone into thinking he couldn't breathe, but, well, Cougar didn't need to know about that, at least not right now. 

“Do you want to take your picture so I can take this off?” Cougar asks, after they've been sitting quietly for a few minutes watching the snow that's started to fall outside. He sounds resigned but Jensen can hear that hint of amusement in his voice that means he's faking it. Cougar's smart, he probably knew from the moment he saw it that Jensen was dying to get a picture of them together. Especially since it's late November and they're planning to send out their Christmas cards this weekend. There's only a few, to Jess and the other Losers, and they all meet up for Christmas dinner, but Jensen still likes the idea of sending out cards to them. He jokes every year that Clay would plan something with another one of his dangerous new girlfriends for Christmas if he didn't get the reminder. 

“I'd love to,” Jensen says enthusiastically. Cougar shifts over on the couch and lets Jensen snuggle up under his arm. He even manages a bit of a smile for the camera, though it's slight enough that Pooch will probably comment again that it's the quiet ones that are dangerous. Cougar can still sneak up on any of them and Jensen knows he still gets a kick out of startling them all. Despite their retired status, he's still a damn ghost when he wants to be. The only one who's immune to it is Jolene, because she's usually carrying the Pup, and Cougar has a soft spot for the toddler that means he's usually wanting to say hello to the two of them instead. 

“You're going to have to hold it up a little higher, to get the hat all the way in,” Cougar says. He sounds truly resigned this time as he nudges the hat up a little so his face can be seen better. Jensen can barely hold back a laugh, but he does move his phone so that the entirety of the atrocious thing is in the frame of its camera. They still look damn good together despite the ugly blinking monstrosity currently sitting on his husband's head. It really is horrible, but then again, he's never been able to convince Cougar to do matching ugly sweaters with him. He'll call this his revenge. 

“I told them it was _un regalo para mi esposo_,” he whispers in Cougar's ear. The picture he takes right after those words perfectly captures his teasing grin and the nearly lovestruck look that Cougar's giving him in return. Perfect for them. Perfect for Christmas. The hat doesn't stay on for much longer, after that, because Cougar's patience has its limits, but Jensen's warm and comfortable in his husband's arms, and gets away with putting on a horribly cliché Hallmark movie, so he decides he can bear the loss.

**Author's Note:**

> If you think Jensen hasn't already set that picture as his phone background, you're wrong. And if you're still wondering what the hat looks like, here it is: https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-lxyj9b/images/stencil/1280x1280/products/3294/10206/Screen_Shot_2017-11-22_at_11.47.02_AM__18802.1511369466.png


End file.
